2.0-2.2 eV AlGaInP solar cells grown by molecular beam epitaxy

We demonstrate 2.0-2.2 eV AlGaInP solar cells grown by molecular beam epitaxy and their performance improvement by rapid thermal annealing (RTA). As grown, these cells exhibit lower performance than their counterparts grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE), indicating a high concentration of point defects. RTA improves all aspects of performance, enabling our 2.0 eV cells to match the efficiency of MOVPEgrown cells. RTA also improves the performance of wider-bandgap AlGaInP solar cells, but the magnitude of improvement decreases with %Al/bandgap energy.

Automated summary

The study demonstrated that AlGaInP solar cells grown by molecular beam epitaxy showed improved performance after rapid thermal annealing, matching the efficiency of cells grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy. The performance of wider-bandgap AlGaInP solar cells also improved with RTA treatment, but the improvement decreased with increasing %Al/bandgap energy.